Return-Path: <linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org>
Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand
	id <S129116AbRBSLre>; Mon, 19 Feb 2001 06:47:34 -0500
Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org
	id <S129170AbRBSLrY>; Mon, 19 Feb 2001 06:47:24 -0500
Received: from mandrakesoft.mandrakesoft.com ([216.71.84.35]:37660 "EHLO
	mandrakesoft.mandrakesoft.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP
	id <S129116AbRBSLrK>; Mon, 19 Feb 2001 06:47:10 -0500
Date: Mon, 19 Feb 2001 05:47:07 -0600 (CST)
From: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@mandrakesoft.com>
To: Nicholas Knight <tegeran@home.com>
cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [LONG RANT] Re: Linux stifles innovation...
In-Reply-To: <003b01c09a67$29367e40$8d19b018@c779218a>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.3.96.1010219054544.17784K-100000@mandrakesoft.mandrakesoft.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org
X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org

On Mon, 19 Feb 2001, Nicholas Knight wrote:
> From: "Jeff Garzik" <jgarzik@mandrakesoft.com>

> > FWIW, -every single- Windows driver source code I've seen has been
> > bloody awful.  Asking them to release that code would probably result in
> > embarrassment.  Same reasoning why many companies won't release hardware
> > specifications...  The internal docs are bad.  Really bad.
> 
> While I understand that internal docs and source are often simply a mess, I
> fail to see why this should prevent a company from releasing specs or
> source.
> Sure somebody will come along and say "What on earth were you people
> THINKING?!", and then they'll get over it and do something useful with the
> specs and/or source to the drivers (or if they don't, somebody else will)
> I seriously doubt it'd lead to a company seeing a drop in sales because of
> it... and even if they did, I'd say it's a calculated risk, as they could
> well pick up a higher number of new customers than the number of old
> customers they lost due to wider ranging support.
> And even if their specs and code were the worst peices of trash on the
> planet, I'd still thank them for opening them up to the public.

You might thank them.  The other opinion is... people look at the
newly-released garbage source code, and say "wow, the driver I'm running
is shit.  I'm switching to another type of hardware."  etc.

Maybe harmless, maybe PR disaster.

	Jeff




-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/